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Thursday, 21 January 2016

Last weekend I had the pleasure of bringing the knit into a beautiful baby shower for one of my oldest and best friends. It reminded me that I never posted about this gorgeous, summery baby shower of another childhood friend and as the weather is so bloomin' cold at the moment, it is the perfect time to draw a little warmth from the sunshine in these pictures!

My beautiful sister made the amazing cakes and threw the party to surprise her best friend, Dominique. One of the things I so loved about bringing this blanket together is that for the first time since I have been making baby shower blankets the baby's dad also knit a square. He knit as a child, and as dad to four boys (the bump is the fourth!) getting back into it is a great example to set. Knitting and crochet are categorically not reserved just for women, but some of the comments I get these days seem to suggest that a lot of folk now believe that is true, so anything that goes against that stereotype is fabulous. Anyway, before I get too high on my horse, I have to say that I love how this blanket turned out.

The colours chosen were bright, so I made some floral granny squares to make use of the gorgeous shades. The squares were also all really different sizes, so I decided to work a crochet granny edge around each of the squares - both knit and crochet - to make it easier to join them and I love the final effect! Gorgeous Rocco - the babe born shortly after this shower - is now one (look how behind I am at this posting lark!) and hopefully still using his beautiful blankie.

Monday, 18 January 2016

I am probably giving myself too many resolutions to achieve this year, but one I really want to try to keep is to take time out to read more. Reading used to be my biggest passion and how I unwound. Knitting and crochet became my go-to relaxation activity many years ago now and I want to redress the balance somewhat. Therefore, one of my newest designs for Inside Crochet - a bookmark - is hopefully going to be put to good use! It is in issue 73, out now in all good newsagents with a glorious granny cluster cardigan by Catherine Waterfield on the front cover, that I hope I eventually get the time to make for myself!

If you don't usually read Inside Crochet, do go and search out this issue - I love so many of the projects inside this month, the colours and textures are beautiful, so it's well worth a flick through.

Saturday, 9 January 2016

As you can see if you read my post Healing Crafts, it has been a bit of an odd year healthwise for me, but I have still managed to squeeze in quite a bit, workwise! Here are some highlights, in order that the pictures appear.

This year marked ten years of freelancing and the event which reminded me of this was the Loop tenth birthday celebrations. I was the first Loopette and it was an honour for Susan to ask me to contribute to the book Loops 10 which she published to mark the occasion. I designed the Sweetie Pie Capelet and I will do a proper post to talk more about it all very soon.

One of my favourite and most 'liked' patterns of 2015, Ava boxy sweater from Inside Crochet 62. (My first task for 2016 is to get all my patterns updated in my Ravelry and Love Knitting shops!)

My littlun now fits into most of the patterns I made for my books Knitting for Children and Crochet for Children, so she wore them a lot this year, which made me very proud, as she just loves them, and a lot of them I made when I was pregnant with her, so it has been a long wait to use them! Here is one of our favourite projects - the Mouse Mitts from Knitting for Children.

I also discovered my first book, Easy Baby Knits is being reissued early 2016! More about that soon.

Nymph is a crochet pattern I designed for Yarn Stories, a UK based yarn company spinning yarns in the UK, a fact that makes me love their yarn even more!

Last year I worked on my first book in quite a few years and I have to say I love the way it has turned out. Not seen a hard copy yet but I shall let you know as soon as it arrives! It is a modern crochet book for beginners inspired by Scandi style. (It's just so me!)

I really enjoyed the people I have met and classes I taught at City Lit last year - this is from the first ever Giant Knits class that I have taught which was great fun! Next up are knitting and then crochet classes for improvers over the next couple of months - check out the details here.

Last up are two more of the projects I designed for Inside Crochet - the cute little Apple amigurumi and a versatile daisy chain necklace/garland.

I also went to Yarndale for the first time, which was fabulous! I am definitely going again this year - will I see you there?

Here's hoping 2016 is as productive with less of the negative side. I am starting the year off having to fix a hole in my hallway ceiling from a leak, but am trying to remain positive and look after myself - lots of calming knitting and crochet for all the new babies coming to friends and family this year are keeping me stress-free so far!